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Credit cards continue to displace cash and checks as the preferred method of payment at businesses across the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve Payments Study, released in December 2007, electronic payments (such as credit cards and debit cards) climbed to 47 billion in 2006, up from 34 billion in 2003 and 15 billion in 1995. In 2003, checks accounted for 46 percent of all payments. By 2006, that had dropped to 33 percent Continue reading →

The new credit card law was supposed to stop teens from getting credit card offers, right? Not necessarily, credit card company and direct mail marketing experts confirm.

Despite the fact that new credit card reform rules banned those preapproved credit card offers to people under 21, it hasn’t stopped the flow of card offers mailed to teens and young adults.

Parents and young adults around the country may wonder why they are still getting mail offers nearly eight weeks after major portions of the Credit CARD Act took effect. That’s because those offers — also known as prescreened offers in the industry — are just one of the ways credit card companies make offers to customers — of all ages Continue reading →

To Her Credit Sally Herigstad is a certified public accountant and the author of “Help! I Can’t Pay My Bills: Surviving a Financial Crisis” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). She writes “To Her Credit,” a weekly reader Q&A column about issues involving women, credit and debt, for CreditCards Continue reading →